Adventures in Coding (A Total Newb's Cannonball Dive into the World of Computer Science): My First Game on Scratch!
For those following my recent bloggage, you may be aware that I have recently begun taking free online classes in computer programming. If you are interested, you can read more about this here and here.
I have been busy the past week, and have also been stumped a bit in regard to my latest endeavor on MIT's simple programming platform Scratch. Well, today, after fiddling with the code and trying to figure out how to get a certain result with my game, I had a small epiphany, and was able to finish this very simple game called "Cheesy Puffs vs. The Moon." You can try it out and examine the simple scratch code here:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/121279992/
Finally, I am considering enrolling in an accredited school online to get a degree in computer programming/IT, but as I am reading more and more, and in light of the posts I have seen on job boards online, and videos I have watched from heads of tech departments, I am not sure this is even necessary or beneficial.
Computer-savvy Steem-O's, what do you think? Is it worth it for me to pay to go to school, or if I get good enough at coding on my own, is that enough to get a good job or start a career in the IT field?
Thanking you in advance for your wisdom. One of the reasons I love Steemit is the willingness of others to share knowledge and resources, and exchange value for value. I hope that my posts on this Steemit blog are adding value to your life in some small way. So many of you on here are adding so much value to mine.
Peace!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist residing in Niigata, Japan.
Is it worth it? Yes. I make nearly $90k/yr working for a Fortune-500 entertainment company and I only have a two-year degree and a couple of professional certifications working as a code monkey.
I recommend learning Java, the MS .NET framework (once you can code in Java, C# is a breeze, they're basically the same just C# uses the .NET framework for its library) HTML5/CSS3 and Javascript (not the same thing as Java). Probably get at least familiar with SQL, too.
Thanks. I really appreciate the info. You're the second person to suggest learning Java first.
Most tech companies that I have interviewed with list a degree as a requirement in the job description. However there is some flexibility in this, as interviewers generally value ability & experience the most. If you don't get a degree, be prepared to demonstrate your qualifications in some other way, such as with involvement in open source projects or discuss personal hobby projects that showcase skills the employer is looking for.